Margin on mini account

[stevielee]

I am new on this stuff but still opened a mini acount with FXCM this week with only 300. The margin is 200 to 1 or $50 per unit. Account went down to about 245. yesterday so trying to regain loses I went short eur 4 units 13029. Price went down (twice) but only sold 1. Then back up so shorted 1 more 13029. So now I have 4 units again and less than $50. Eur jumps to 13038 quickly and got margin call. OK I understand that one (-42 pips)
So now have just under 200. and again short eur 3 units 1.3035-1.3037 putting trailing stops on 2 and stop on 1. One sells while sleeping and sold other 5am (+37 pips). Keep 1 with limit 1.2950 (wishing) and go to work. Get home and not only slide from my stop but another margin call! 1.3055 (-18 pips)
So how did I get margin call from only 18 pip loss and over 200. in unused and holding no other positions? Could my previous transactions not closed yet?

[techno791]

Funny that you mentioned this as I had the same problem last week and I think I figured it out. I got margin called 2 times on a mini, the trades were going to be winning but the retracement couldn't handle it, and two orders went through too once wiping it out. Didn't want to do two orders, didn't realize I was using too much margin. I guess you don't have to completely suck to lose an account, you can misread the process.

I have 400:1, so every lot is 25 dollars, standard is 250.
If I have $100 dollars.
I buy two mini lots, each lot costed me 25 so now I spent 50 dollars.
Now I have $50 in usable equity. In my account screen I have "usbmrg" which fluctualates with price. At $2/pip I think I 25 pips can go down before that reaches $0, margin call, close out, and I get the original $50 back though I think.
But with $50, now I can only have one mini open, with a 25 pip loss buffer, or open 2 lots and hope I never get any retracement at all.
Which made me realize trading on a mini is a lot harder than I thought.

Every broker is a little different. From CMS:

For every position a client has opened, a collateral deposit known as margin is required to be put aside in the client’s account. For example, an account with $1,000 that opens a standard lot position will have to put $250 aside* as the margin and will have $750 in remaining usable equity. If the direction of the market moves opposite to the client’s position, and their usable equity reaches $0 from $750, then the position will be automatically closed in order to protect the client from losing any more of their remaining balance, and possibly falling into negative territory. After the margin call in this example the client will have approximately $250, the original margin requirement, left in his or her account.

After so many lots your leverage goes down, so it's not always 400 or 200:1 for every type of trade if anyones jealous.

Maybe other brokers don't set that initial number off to the side? If not it's a start.
---

Speaking of being hard, made 15 pips on the NFP, but with one mini..maybe 2, doesn't really add up

[stevielee]

After looking much closer I only got 1 margin call. When I logged in the next day a popup window came on with margin call,but was for the earily one. I will disable the popups. The other unit sold because of my stop and price ran too fast.
Funny how it now hit 1.2950,my eariler limit on short. I am going add few hundred and only go for 1 mini at a time now.

[HititUP]

You guys would have much more success with mini accounts on high leverage if you only strive for 2-4 pips a day.

It multiplies REALLY fast.

I started in January 12th this year with $300 on a 1:500 leverage.
My last trade yesterday put me at $2,090.05.

Before 2 pips got me like $20, now it gets me almost $200.

It starts off slow, and may not seem like a lot, but just a few pips a day can really turn into a nice ammount in a short time and keep on growing.

Once you have more you can really make a lot.

[HititUP]

One more thing...

I forgot to mention that I originally started January 1st with $1,500 and 1:200

I got so confident that I got a margin call and lost all but $60. I was devistated.

Since then I have made it all back with just $300 and I'm actually ahead by $360 something now...

I plan to double my current position, take out my original money, and play the same way (2-4 pips a day) with free money.

[mnvestor]

Who do you use as your broker, never seen 1:500 leverage? TIA

Originally Posted by HititUP

You guys would have much more success with mini accounts on high leverage if you only strive for 2-4 pips a day.

It multiplies REALLY fast.

I started in January 12th this year with $300 on a 1:500 leverage.
My last trade yesterday put me at $2,090.05.

Before 2 pips got me like $20, now it gets me almost $200.

It starts off slow, and may not seem like a lot, but just a few pips a day can really turn into a nice ammount in a short time and keep on growing.

Once you have more you can really make a lot.

[HititUP]

Originally Posted by mnvestor

Who do you use as your broker, never seen 1:500 leverage? TIA

North Finance

[techno791]

Problem is I miscalculated and got margin called on retraces on winning trades. So I need a bigger buffer and I'll be cool.
Would like to trade more short term trades for those 2-4 pips, but the charts and lines aren't as reliable I've been gettting, and I'm missing some vital thing to make it happen. Keep getting suckered into daily charts and news events. I have OVER 100 indicators, and everytime i decide to see how one works, I'm sure I'm reinventing the wheel.

[iiiqqqeg]

good job Hititup ....

here's mine ....

i too had a margin call last summer ....

then i started to just watching forex for like 2 or 3 months , just watching , trying to read it right , but everytime i find nothing works at the end until i decided to only work on 5 min charts with 2 simple indicators for like 30% or 40% of my account profit weekly .... average from 5 to 20 pips a day ... some days i don't place any trades at all cause my tough conditions doesn't apply ....

i'm doing fairly well since then and i really beleive there r some few times every week in the market , when u catch them u r just cashing profit from that easy market .... although all the time i keep hearing and reading about the annual ,monthly or even weekly breakout for the euro or for any or news about bla bla , i don't even pay attention and i beleive i won't need to do in future.....

i'm with interbankfx and i will apply to increase my leverage if they agree otherwise i might think about switching

[mister_doodi]

Most of the brokers that offer high leverages do not have the best interest of the trader in mind.